A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes people who indicate their race as "Native Hawaiian," "Guamanian or Chamorro," "Samoan," and "Other Pacific Islander."

Includes people who provide a write-in response of a Pacific Islander group such as Carolinian; Chuukese (Trukese); Fijian; Kosraean; Melanesian; Micronesian; Northern Mariana Islander; Palauan; Papua New Guinean; Pohnpeian; Polynesian; Solomon Islander; Tahitian; Tokelauan; Tongan; Yapese; or Other Pacific Islander, not specified. Three Pacific Islander cultural groups are identified in the base tables: Melanesian, which includes Fijian; Micronesian, which includes Guamanian and Chamorro; and Polynesian, which includes Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tongan.

Excerpt from:

Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2007-2009 Summary File: Technical Documentation.

In compiling statistics on family income, the incomes of all members 15 years old and over related to the householder are summed and treated as a single amount. Although the family income statistics cover the past 12 months, the characteristics of individuals and the composition of families refer to the time of interview. Thus, the income of the family does not include amounts received by individuals who were members of the family during all or part of the past 12 months if these individuals no longer resided with the family at the time of interview. Similarly, income amounts reported by individuals who did not reside with the family during the past 12 months but who were members of the family at the time of interview are included. However, the composition of most families was the same during the past 12 months as at the time of interview.

Excerpt from:

Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2007-2009 Summary File: Technical Documentation.

New questions were added to the 2008 ACS CATI/CAPI instrument. Respondents who received a high school diploma, GED or equivalent were also asked if they had completed any college credit. Therefore, data users may notice a decrease in the number of high school graduates relative to previous years because those people are now being captured in the "Some college credit, but less than 1 year of college credit" or "1 or more years of college credit, no degree categories." For more information see the report titled Report P.2.b: "Evaluation Report Covering Educational Attainment" on the ACS website (www.census.gov/acs).

Data about educational attainment are also collected from the decennial Census and from the Current Population Survey (CPS). ACS data is generally comparable to data from the Census. For more information about the comparability of ACS and CPS data, please see the link for the Fact Sheet and the Comparison Report from the CPS Educational Attainment page.